True sees jump in revenue from broadband

Manut Manavuthiveth, chief commercial officer of TrueOnline, said yesterday that the broadband market is expected to continue expanding every year in response to high demand for social media and Internet surfing. True expects to add 300,000 subscribers to its 1.9 million base this year.

The company plans to launch a new package offering a maximum connection speed of 30 megabits per second (Mbps) to individual customers, bundled with services from payTV operator TrueVisions and broadband cellular operator True Move H. 

The company declined to reveal the price of this package, which is expected to be not more than Bt1,000 per month. The campaign is due to launch this month, targeting 100,000 new customers.

“Internet services are one of the basic infrastructure services for all households. There is still more room to grow,” he said.

Last year, True’s broadband revenue surged 17 per cent to Bt14.3 billion. Its average revenue per user last year was Bt712, up from Bt699 in 2012, but little bit growth is predicted for this year.

True enjoys a dominant share of 40 per cent of the nationwide market and 65 per cent of the Greater Bangkok market. It is eyeing to secure at least 70 per cent of Greater Bangkok this year. Broadband users nationwide number about 5 million.

True has a plan to invest about Bt10 billion on network expansion throughout the country to cover five million households with an advanced broadband network.According to True, there are about 39 million users of three popular social media networks – Facebook, Line and Twitter – while total Internet users have reached 26 million, of whom 5 million are broadband users. 

The average data speed is 21Mbps per household, which above the world average of 18.45Mbps, according to popular speed test website Ookla.